The Saving Graces [NOOK Book]

Overview

Meet The Saving Graces, Four Of The Best Friends A Woman Can Ever Have.

For ten years, Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel have shared a deep affection that has helped them deal with the ebb and flow of expectations and disappointments common to us all. Calling themselves the Saving Graces, the quartet is united by understanding, honesty, and acceptance—a connection that has grown stronger as the years go by . . .

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This Book

Overview

Meet The Saving Graces, Four Of The Best Friends A Woman Can Ever Have.

For ten years, Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel have shared a deep affection that has helped them deal with the ebb and flow of expectations and disappointments common to us all. Calling themselves the Saving Graces, the quartet is united by understanding, honesty, and acceptance—a connection that has grown stronger as the years go by . . .

Though these sisters of the heart and soul have seen it all, talked through it all, Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel will not be prepared for a crisis of astounding proportions that will put their love and courage to the ultimate test.

What People Are Saying

Nora Roberts

Patricia Gaffney paints a vivid portrait of four very different women and the bonds between them. Friendship with its compassion and impatience, love with its powers and weaknesses, life with its triumphs and failures are brilliantly voiced through characters so real they might be sitting in your living room sharing a bottle of wine. Those who don't recognize themselves or their friends in The Saving Graces will wish they did. This is a jewel of a book, and every facet sparkles.

Michael Lee West

The Saving Graces is a rich, lovely novel about women and the emotions at the center of their lives. It's also an intimate portrayal of friendships through the eyes of four unforgettable women. I hated to put it down!
— (Michael Lee West, author of Crazy Ladies)

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Women: combine their incredible yet subtle inner strength with the unique bonds of friendship, and the result is one of the most powerful forces on earth. Author Patricia Gaffney has tapped into that force with a poignant portrait of four remarkable women in her newest novel, The Saving Graces.

For the past 10 years, Rudy, Emma, Isabel, and Lee have shared a bond of affection, support, and understanding that gives each of them the strength to deal with the many ups and downs in their lives. Their connection, born out of a coincidental meeting, is carried on through regular gatherings — usually dinners — where they talk, share, commiserate, and laugh. Their bond is as mysterious and ephemeral as a ghost, yet each of them knows beyond a doubt that it is there and draws strength from it in times of need.

For Rudy, the beauty in the group, the Saving Graces offers a level of stability she never had as a child. Having come from a highly dysfunctional family, her definition of love is warped, though her capacity to provide it is endless. Under the guidance of a therapist she has been seeing for years, she will come to understand why she is clinging so desperately to her manipulative and devious husband, whose true colors are much darker than anyone suspects. And with the help of the other Graces, she will discover the true meaning of love, finding herself in the process.

Emma, a woman with a fiery personality to match her hair color, is the skeptic of the group. Though she is single, it isn't from a lack of dates. In fact, Emma has made going through mensomethingof a lifestyle. Jaded and bitter from past experiences, she thinks love is an imaginary concept, a fairy tale for those out of touch with reality. Then she meets Mick and finds that love does indeed exist. Except Mick is someone she can't have: He belongs to someone else. Torn between her morals and her heart, Emma will experience heartache unlike any she's ever known. The only thing that gets her through it is the love and support of the Graces.

Lee is generally regarded by all as the most stable one in the group. Her loving marriage to Henry makes it seem as if she has life by the tail. But when she and Henry decide to start a family, the specter of infertility is raised. Before long, Lee's pursuit of motherhood becomes an obsession that threatens her happiness and her marriage. Her main source of support, which will also produce some hard truths, is the Graces.

Isabel is the eldest of the Graces by nearly a decade. Having already survived the emotional and financial blows inflicted by a bitter divorce, she possesses a hard-earned wisdom and an inner strength. But then she comes face to face with her biggest battle yet — breast cancer. The Graces must prepare themselves for a crisis that will be the ultimate test of their love and commitment to one another.

Told from the alternating points of view of each of the four characters, The Saving Graces is, in turn, touching, funny, inspirational, and utterly unforgettable. It is intelligent women's fiction, richly rendered and intimately told. Bring your tissues along for the ride.

—Beth Amos

Michael Lee West

Rich, Lovely...An intimate portrayal of friendships through the eyes of four unforgettable women. I hated to put it down!

Washington Post Book World

Compelling...breathtaking...unique.

Times-Picayune

Anyone who's ever raised a glass to toast her women friends will love this book—its raw emotion, its rueful humor, its life lessons.

Nora Roberts

A jewel of a book and every facet sparkles.

Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly

Formulaic but sprightly, Gaffney's debut is a variation on the theme of women's solidarity and bravery. Four friends in Washington, D.C., have been meeting once a week for 10 years, relying on each other for laughter, advice and encouragement. There's Emma, approaching 40 and in love with a married man named Mick; Rudy, the unstable depressive whose marriage is on the rocks; happily married Lee, who desperately wishes to have a child with her husband, Henry; and Isabel, the divorced cancer survivor who is in love with her neighbor, Kirby. They call themselves "The Saving Graces," after a dog they once hit with a car, rescued and nursed to recovery: now "she's old and grizzled like us... but she is the sweetest dog." Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the Graces, and though Gaffney provides each character with a distinctive voice, the stories are overly emotional and predictable. Together the women help each other with their various love troubles until Isabel's cancer returns, a blow that brings them even closer, "putting things in perspective" and setting the scene for the inevitable weepy ending. The Graces eventually get what they long for; each finds her own brand of bittersweet satisfaction, with hard-won lessons learned. "We don't go around calling ourselves [the Saving Graces] in public," says Emma. "It's corny; it sounds like a TV sitcom... starring Valerie Bertinelli, Susan Dey and Cybill Shepherd. Notice these are all attractive, smart, funny women who happen to be a little long in the tooth." While Graces reads much like daytime drama, it lacks the suspense of that medium; we know how things will work out right from the beginning. But since TV doesn't travel to the beach, this novel may provide a soap opera fix under a sun umbrella. 100,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections; author tour; rights sold in Germany, Sweden, Finland, England and Norway. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Historical romance novelist Gaffney (Outlaw in Paradise, LJ 8/97) breaks into contemporary womens fiction with this poignant story about friendship. Emma, Rudy, Lee, and Isabel have been a tight-knit group for ten years. These are real women, full of human flaws, and all are at life-changing crossroads. Emma, single and 40, finds herself in a platonic affair with a married man. Rudy, six years married, must decide whether to sacrifice her mental health on the altar of her husband. Lees inability to conceive a child casts an ominous shadow over her blissful marriage. Isabel is the oldest of the Graces. With their support she has vanquished a philandering husband and breast cancer. But two years later, there are some things that even friendship cant surmount. The Saving Graces is a character-driven novel, and Gaffney has a keen sense of direction. Bring tissues.
— Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA

Kirkus Reviews

A sweetly affirmative if teary-eyed story, Washington, D.C.–set, of four women who find consolation in friendship as they cope with cliché issues from breast cancer to infertility. For more than ten years, Lee, Emma, Rudy, and Isabel have been getting together regularly for talk, dinner, and mutual support. They call themselves the "Saving Graces" because they once hit a dog while driving home after dinner, but managed to save it and named her Grace. Isabel, almost saintly in appearance and action, is the oldest, the group's den mother, and the only one with a child. As the story opens, she's divorced, trying to make a new life, and recovering from breast cancer. Lee, knowledgeable and professional, is married to Henry, a sweet hunk of a plumber, and wants a baby, but can't get pregnant. Rudy, whose family is a mess, is seeing a therapist and trying to make a life without angering her manipulative husband, Curtis. Emma, a single journalist, wants to write fiction and marry. Eventually, Isabel loses her battle with the cancer, but she finds a new love. Lee's marriage is strained by her unsuccessful infertility treatments. Rudy's struggle for autonomy is battered by Curtis's cruel lies. And Emma falls in love with a married man. But each woman can depend on the others for support, so that when the crises come, they're all there to pitch in with help, affection, and food. The dying Isabel, wise and loyal to the end, writes a letter to be read after her death that neatly counsels her friends on what to do with their lives—advice they immediately heed, thereby finding the requisite happiness such a tale demands. Strong characters making the best of an often schematic butalways readable story. It's Gaffney's first hardcover—and a great book for the beach. (First printing of 100,000; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book selections; $200,000 ad/promo; author tour)

Meet the Author

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Emma

If half of all marriages end in divorce, how long does the average marriage last? This isn't a math problem; I'd really like to know. I bet it's less than nine and a half years. That's how long the Saving Graces have been going strong, and we're not even getting restless. We still talk, still notice things about each other, weight loss, haircuts, new boots. As far as I know, nobody's looking around for a younger, firmer member.

Truthfully, I never thought we'd last this long. I only joined because Rudy made me. The other three, Lee, Isabel, and -- Joan? Joanne? She didn't last; moved to Detroit with her urologist boyfriend, and we didn't keep up -- the other three didn't strike me at that first meeting as bosom buddy material, frankly. I thought Lee was bossy and Isabel was old -- thirty-nine. Well, I'll be forty next year, enough said there, and Lee is bossy, but she can't help it because she's always right. She really is, and it's a tribute to her exceptional nature that we don't all loathe her for it.

The first meeting went badly. We had it at Isabel's house -- this was back when she was still married to Gary. God, these people are straight, I remember thinking. Straight and rich, that's what really got me -- but I'd just moved into a dank little basement apartment in Georgetown for eleven hundred a month because of the address, so I was a little touchy about money. Lee looked as if she'd just come from spa day at Neiman's. Plus she was single, still in graduate school, and teaching special ed. part-time -- you know how much money there is in that -- and yet she lived around the block from Isabel in snooty Chevy Chase, in ahouse she wasn't renting but owned. Naturally I had it in for these people.

All the way home I explained to Rudy, with much wit and sarcasm and disdain, what was wrong with everybody, and why I couldn't possibly join a women's group whose members owned electric hedge trimmers, wore Ellen Tracy, remembered Eisenhower, dated urologists. "But they're nice," Rudy insisted. Which, of course, missed the point. Lots of people are nice, but you don't want to have dinner with them every other Thursday and exchange secrets.

The other thing was jealousy. I was small enough to mind that Rudy had a good friend other than me. One night a week she and Lee volunteered to teach reading to inner-city illiterates, and had gotten to know each other during the training. I never worried, then or now, that they would become best friends; I mean, if ever there were two people with nothing in common, it's Lee and Rudy. But I was my old insecure self (then and now), and too neurotic to recognize the potential beauty of the Saving Graces even when it was staring me in the face.

We weren't the Saving Graces yet, of course. Even now, we don't go around calling ourselves that in public. It's corny; it sounds like a TV sitcom. Doesn't it? "The Saving Graces," starring Valerie Bertinelli, Susan Dey, and Cybill Shepherd. Notice these are all attractive, smart, funny women who happen to be a little long in the tooth. Anyway, the genesis of our name is a private matter. Not for any particular reason -- it's kind of funny, and it reflects well on us all. But we just don't talk about it. It's personal.

We were driving back from dinner at a restaurant in Great Falls (we eat out when the person whose turn it is doesn't feel like cooking), taking the long way because Rudy missed the Beltway turnoff. We'd been a group for about a year by then; we'd just lost Joan/Joanne but hadn't yet acquired Marsha, transient member number two, so it was just the four of us. I was sitting in the back seat. Rudy turned around to catch my impersonation of the waitress, who we all thought looked and sounded just like Emma Thompson. Isabel yelled, "Look out!" and a split second later we hit the dog.

I can still see the expression on that yellow mutt face in the instant before the fender caught her on the shoulder and flipped her over the hood of Rudy's Saab -- quizzical, curious, just mildly concerned. As if she were thinking, "Well, hm, isn't this interesting."

Everybody screamed. I kept saying, "It's dead, it's dead, it's got to be dead," while Rudy jerked the car off the pavement. To tell the truth, if I'd been driving by myself, I might've kept going: I was sure it was dead, and I didn't want to see. When I was twelve I ran over a frog with my bike, and I'm still not over it. But Rudy killed the engine and everybody piled out, so I had to get out with them.

It wasn't dead. But we didn't know that until Lee suddenly metamorphosed, right there on MacArthur Boulevard, into Cherry Ames, Highway Nurse. Have you ever seen a human being give CPR to a dog? It's funny, but only in retrospect. While it's happening it's sort of thrilling and revolting, like something that's still illegal in most of New England. Rudy whipped off her black cashmere cloak, which I have always coveted, and wrapped it around the dog because Lee said it was going into shock. "A vet, we need a vet," Isabel fretted, but there wasn't a house in sight, no store, no nothing except a darkened church on the other side of the road. Isabel jumped up and waved her arms at a car coming on our side. When it pulled over, she ran up and had a conversation with the driver. I stood there and wrung my hands.

First Chapter

Emma

If half of all marriages end in divorce, how long does the average marriage last? This isn't a math problem; I'd really like to know. I bet it's less than nine and a half years. That's how long the Saving Graces have been going strong, and we're not even getting restless. We still talk, still notice things about each other, weight loss, haircuts, new boots. As far as I know, nobody's looking around for a younger, firmer member.

Truthfully, I never thought we'd last this long. I only joined because Rudy made me. The other three, Lee, Isabel, and — Joan? Joanne? She didn't last; moved to Detroit with her urologist boyfriend, and we didn't keep up — the other three didn't strike me at that first meeting as bosom buddy material, frankly. I thought Lee was bossy and Isabel was old — thirty-nine. Well, I'll be forty next year, enough said there, and Lee is bossy, but she can't help it because she's always right. She really is, and it's a tribute to her exceptional nature that we don't all loathe her for it.

The first meeting went badly. We had it at Isabel's house — this was back when she was still married to Gary. God, these people are straight, I remember thinking. Straight and rich, that's what really got me — but I'd just moved into a dank little basement apartment in Georgetown for eleven hundred a month because of the address, so I was a little touchy about money. Lee looked as if she'd just come from spa day at Neiman's. Plus she was single, still in graduate school, and teaching special ed. part-time — you know how much money there is in that — and yet she lived around the block from Isabel in snooty Chevy Chase, in a house she wasn't renting but owned. Naturally I had it in for these people.

All the way home I explained to Rudy, with much wit and sarcasm and disdain, what was wrong with everybody, and why I couldn't possibly join a women's group whose members owned electric hedge trimmers, wore Ellen Tracy, remembered Eisenhower, dated urologists. "But they're nice," Rudy insisted. Which, of course, missed the point. Lots of people are nice, but you don't want to have dinner with them every other Thursday and exchange secrets.

The other thing was jealousy. I was small enough to mind that Rudy had a good friend other than me. One night a week she and Lee volunteered to teach reading to inner-city illiterates, and had gotten to know each other during the training. I never worried, then or now, that they would become best friends; I mean, if ever there were two people with nothing in common, it's Lee and Rudy. But I was my old insecure self (then and now), and too neurotic to recognize the potential beauty of the Saving Graces even when it was staring me in the face.

We weren't the Saving Graces yet, of course. Even now, we don't go around calling ourselves that in public. It's corny; it sounds like a TV sitcom. Doesn't it? "The Saving Graces," starring Valerie Bertinelli, Susan Dey, and Cybill Shepherd. Notice these are all attractive, smart, funny women who happen to be a little long in the tooth. Anyway, the genesis of our name is a private matter. Not for any particular reason — it's kind of funny, and it reflects well on us all. But we just don't talk about it. It's personal.

We were driving back from dinner at a restaurant in Great Falls (we eat out when the person whose turn it is doesn't feel like cooking), taking the long way because Rudy missed the Beltway turnoff. We'd been a group for about a year by then; we'd just lost Joan/Joanne but hadn't yet acquired Marsha, transient member number two, so it was just the four of us. I was sitting in the back seat. Rudy turned around to catch my impersonation of the waitress, who we all thought looked and sounded just like Emma Thompson. Isabel yelled, "Look out!" and a split second later we hit the dog.

I can still see the expression on that yellow mutt face in the instant before the fender caught her on the shoulder and flipped her over the hood of Rudy's Saab — quizzical, curious, just mildly concerned. As if she were thinking, "Well, hm, isn't this interesting."

Everybody screamed. I kept saying, "It's dead, it's dead, it's got to be dead," while Rudy jerked the car off the pavement. To tell the truth, if I'd been driving by myself, I might've kept going: I was sure it was dead, and I didn't want to see. When I was twelve I ran over a frog with my bike, and I'm still not over it. But Rudy killed the engine and everybody piled out, so I had to get out with them.

It wasn't dead. But we didn't know that until Lee suddenly metamorphosed, right there on MacArthur Boulevard, into Cherry Ames, Highway Nurse. Have you ever seen a human being give CPR to a dog? It's funny, but only in retrospect. While it's happening it's sort of thrilling and revolting, like something that's still illegal in most of New England. Rudy whipped off her black cashmere cloak, which I have always coveted, and wrapped it around the dog because Lee said it was going into shock. "A vet, we need a vet," Isabel fretted, but there wasn't a house in sight, no store, no nothing except a darkened church on the other side of the road. Isabel jumped up and waved her arms at a car coming on our side. When it pulled over, she ran up and had a conversation with the driver. I stood there and wrung my hands.

Reading Group Guide

Introduction

Isabel, Emma, Rudy and Lee are four Washington, D.C. women of different ages, from very different backgrounds, who share an unbreakable bond. They've named themselves "The Saving Graces" after Grace, a mutt they accidentally hit with their car, then rescued. For ten years the women have met weekly to eat, chat, and shore each other up in the face of anything life can dish out.

As The Saving Graces begins, each woman is on the cusp of a major challenge: Emma will fall into tormented love with a married man; Rudy's controlling husband will close in on her just as she's making progress overcoming her troubled past; Lee will be unable to conceive a baby; and Isabel's cancer will relapse. It's Isabel's illness that draws the four women together more tightly than ever and takes their friendship, love, and courage to the limit.

Told from four different perspectives, The Saving Graces is a captivating, complex story, and a heartfelt tribute to the beauty of female friendship.

Questions for Discussion

Which Grace do you relate to most, and why? What do you define as "grace"? Where do you find it in your life?

Why do you think the author starts and ends the story from Emma's point of view? Would you consider Emma the main character?

When Lee is describing Isabel for the first time, she says, "Some people are born knowing things the rest of us spend our lives trying to learn." What kind of things do you think she's talking about? Do you agree with Lee? What do you think Isabel had, or knew, that the other Graces didn't?

The night Emma finds out that Mick Draco is married, she describesmen as "speed bumps ... aggravating distractions scattered along life's otherwise pretty nice highway," and also says that good women are easier to find. Do you think she really believes this? Have you ever felt the way Emma says she does? Do you think men feel that way about women -- that, on the whole, men are the better sex -- or that this a uniquely feminine perspective?

At one point, Rudy says about Curtis, "I tried not loving him -- just for a second; an experiment. To my horror, it worked." What does she mean by this? That her love for him isn't real? What do you think of Rudy and Curtis' relationship, overall? How did your feelings change about him over the course of the book? When he told Rudy he has leukemia, did you believe him? What do you think Rudy's dream means?

There's a remarkably small amount of jealousy and possessiveness among the Graces. Do you think this is realistic? Have you had the same experiences with your women friends?

When you tally it up among the four of them, the Graces experience just about every tragedy known to womankind -- cancer, infidelity, alcoholism and drug abuse, mental illness, infertility, and devastating heartbreak, to name a few. Do you think the author has woven these themes in realistically, or does it feel contrived? Would you say this group of women experiences more than their share of suffering? What about joy?

The only time the idea of romantic love between women comes up in the book is via Jenny, Henry's lesbian plumber mom. Why do you think the author wrote Jenny into the story? What purpose does she serve? Do you think Jenny really assumes The Saving Graces is founded on the same basic ideas as the women's group/commune she belonged to in the late '70s? Is it? If so, how is it the same, and how is it different?

Have you ever belonged to a formal group like The Saving Graces? Do you think it's difficult to form close friendships with women later in life, after school and other settings? How do you think friendships among women change as they age?

At one point, Emma describes Isabel as her "mentor, although neither of us would ever say that out loud, and certainly we'd never use that word." Do you think that's an accurate way to describe their relationship?

What about mothering -- is Isabel the mother figure in The Saving Graces? Or is Lee? Do you think any one member takes more than she gives, or is it all pretty equal?

Why do you think Lee holds out for so long trying to have her own baby? Do you think she's justified in feeling so angry and desperate, especially when she has a loving husband, a good job, a nice home -- and other people have much bigger problems, like her friend Isabel, who's dying? How do you think Lee's experience with infertility affects her reactions to what's going on with Isabel?

Isabel says "sometimes kindness is as excruciating as cruelty." What do you think she means by that? Do you agree with her?

Why do you think the author wrote in Isabel's encounter with Sheldon Herman, the old man on the bench?

When Isabel and Kirby sleep together for the first time, she's able to forget for a moment that she's dying -- then abruptly remembers again. Do you think that sex and death are related in any way?

What do you think of the scene where the Graces take on Curtis? Is it realistic? Is it everybody's fantasy, in some way, to have their best friends there for them in the hardest moments? Can you really have help with these things, or do you need to face them alone?

Do you think Emma and Mick will make it as a couple? Or were they brought together by the desire for something they couldn't have, and, now that they have it, their passion will be diminished?

Which of the Graces do you think grew the most over the course of the book, and in what ways?

About the Author

Patricia Gaffney was born in Tampa, Florida and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She received her B.A. in English from Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, and also studied at the University of London, George Washington University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After a brief stint as a high school English teacher, Patricia worked as a freelance court reporter for fifteen years. She and her husband currently live in Pennsylvania where she writes fiction full time.

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wonderful book on friendship

I read this book almost 3 years ago and to this day it still sticks in my mind. I am one who reads all types of books from the classics to historical fiction to mainstream lit. THe writing wasn't fancy but the story was extremely well told with real emotion. I wanted to be friends with these girls. I do not agree with the first reviewer when she says it is confusing. If you read the name at the top of the chapter, you know exactly who is taking in that chapter of the book- not too difficult at all. ALL girls should be lucky enough to have a group of friends like the characters in this book. HIghly recommended.

5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted February 7, 2005

LISTEN UP FOLKS!!!

I've never written a review but feel compelled to let every woman know what a MUST READ this book is. I just happened across it and grabbed it to take on vacation. Lukily I was with a bunch of women that wouldn't allow me to sit in a chair and read while in Puerto Vallarta because that's exactly what I would have done. I could barely tear myself away. I cried so hard I couldn't read the words and a little while later I was laughing so hard the tears were streaming down my face. I was literally depressed when I was nearing the end. I wanted to still be a part of these womens lives that I had come to love. I've finished the book and I miss them terribly. Every woman should read this. I don't think a man would get it.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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kwrunner

Posted February 6, 2010

Nice themes

An overall enjoyable read, HOWEVER, it is peppered with totally unnecessary F-words that not only dumb down the writing, but also the characters. Surely a creative writer can come up with a better word to use. I got so tired of them that I put the book down for a long time before I picked it up again to finish, and even considered returning it. For this reason, this book will not be a part of my permanent library.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 10, 2008

one of the best womens' fiction book

I like primarily that this book is written very well. It has great passages that all women can relate to, from relationships with other women, with men and our relationships with our kids and parents. Its insightful, smart and real about how we all have ups and downs in life and it just makes you want to have a bonding sisterhood like this one where you can share all the bitter and sweet moments in your life like the saving graces do.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted March 27, 2007

A reviewer

My mother-in-law gave this to me and at first glance, it appeared to be stereotypical chick lit. However, this is not the case. The book was not predictable and there were enough twists and turns to make it very interesting. Once I got into it, I did not want to put it down. The characters are believable. This book is abot 4 close friends and each chapter is told by a different character. You actually get wrapped up in each life. The character's lives are believable and so is the storyline. A great story.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted May 26, 2013

Not a favorite

I can't say I disliked this book, just found it boring. I thought the beginning chapters were introducing each character and giving a little bit of background for the story. I like to read a story all put together, not jusr chapters on characters. Got bored and quit reading at about page 83.

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Anonymous

Posted May 20, 2012

Highly recommended. You must check it out.

I have read and read this book! It is amazing!

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EBrown

Posted April 10, 2010

Poignant and touching

I may have been more moved by this book than I normally would due to my own recent diagnosis of breast cancer, however, I wasn't able to put this book down. I chose this book based on other reviews, but not really knowing what the story line was. I was not sorry! I struggled a little getting into it at first because of there being four main characters telling the story from their own point of view. By the end, the author had done an amazing job of defining each woman as an individual within the group. I would strongly recommend this book - especially to those women who have had the blessing of a longterm friendship with another woman. Great read!

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Beautifully written

You will fall in love with all 4 ladies. Each has an interesting story and point of view. Hard to put this one down.

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Casidk

Posted March 16, 2009

An interesting concept for plot.

I enjoyed hearing about a woman's group that is there for each other in all times of life. I think a book club would enjoy the camaraderie of the group.

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Anonymous

Posted July 19, 2005

LOVE THIS BOOK!!

I loved this book. I could hardly put it down. Any woman with at least one great girlfriend will laugh, cry and relate to every aspect of this book. The author did an excellent job of capturing that perfect yet unexplainable relationship we have with our girlfriends they make us laugh harder than anyone we know, let us have a good cry when needed, and keep us level headed with an honesty only they cuold get away with, even when we are angry with them their friendships would not be traded for anything! I buying this book for my best friends!!

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Anonymous

Posted August 5, 2005

Must Read!

This has become one of my all time favorites. Well written and gets you so emotionally involved with the characters. You will laugh and you will cry and you will not want to put this book down. One that you just didn't want to end. Enjoy!!!!

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Anonymous

Posted January 27, 2005

Just stick with it...it's worth it!

For the most part, I have given up reading fiction, because so much of it is either unbearably predictable or poorly written. However, I was looking for something fun to read while on vacation and came across The Saving Graces. Although it took a while for me to relate to the characters once I did I was unable to put the book down. I believe that we can all relate, on some level, to at least one of these women. I also believe that we can all learn at least one lesson from them. Ms. Gaffney writes as if she's speaking to you and keeps things interesting by telling the story from each characters unique perspective. Definitely worth reading.

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Anonymous

Posted August 8, 2004

OUTSTANDING!

My daughter, who is 16, Jade. She HATES books, with a passion she once told me. One day I was reading the Saving Graces and she wanted to read it too, all of the sudden I looked at my dresser to read more into the book and I could'nt find it. It was in the bare hands of my daughter Jade, she could not stop reading it. Somedays she would want me to bring her dinner to her room so she could read more. THANK YOU SAVING GRACES! for making it so intresting to all ages.

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Anonymous

Posted July 30, 2004

Not what I expected.

I thought this was disappointing. The book didnt get good until the last 100 pages or so. It was dragging for a while there, and got confusing at times with all the switching around.

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Anonymous

Posted January 9, 2004

Every Women Should Read

This book made me feel like I knew the characters personally. I could relate to all the ups and downs the Graces experienced. It makes you realize how important the support of your friends is.

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Anonymous

Posted August 15, 2003

One for each girlfriend

I was so engrossed in all of these characters. You feel as if they're YOUR girlfriends! If you have girlfriends, you need this book. I belong to a similar group...The Fab 5. I'm getting the other 4 girls the book and sending it to them today. They'll love it.

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Anonymous

Posted July 29, 2003

Breathtaking!

I am usually a fast reader who wants to get through a book so I know what happens at the end. With Saving Graces, I savored every word, every moment, everything. It is now one of my all time favorite books.

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Anonymous

Posted August 13, 2002

* wow *

this book was abolutely amazing, i read alot but i generally dont get caugth up in the sotries nearly as much as i did in this book. after i ahd finish i genuinly felt like i knew all of the characters.i read the last 300 pages in one sitting, i literally couldnt put it down, and the first thing i did after i finished was recommend the book to all of my girl-friends. p.s. someone should really make this into a movie...

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Anonymous

Posted March 14, 2002

Excellent book. A real tear jerker, though. Worth the time.

It is a very quick read, and worth the time. I, also, think this should be made into a movie, however, i don't think it is nessisarily a feminine book. It could give a guy some serious insight into the personalities of women.

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